


Xavier's Alliance: Doing Time

by CrawlerCraft



Series: Xavier's Alliance [3]
Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: F/M, SHIELD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-29
Updated: 2016-01-02
Packaged: 2018-05-04 01:28:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5315087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrawlerCraft/pseuds/CrawlerCraft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After being abandoned by Sinister, Riptide has now aided the X-Men in helping them find two runnaway Marauders, Scrambler and Vertigo. But it will take some help from the team to help him realize what he is really fighting for. And after a little stunt of his out in public winds himself and some of the X-Men in cells, how can he try and avoid Colossus' rage?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Riptide Trains

**Author's Note:**

> Please read parts 1 and 2 before continuing. Proof reading is done after this particular part is finished.
> 
> As usual, language, blood, strong Kuroro, I can't write. Enjoy.

For the X-Men, everything that was happening made no sense. And for Wolverine, it was just weird. He wasn’t really bothered by the fact that he had just come back to life with no explanation other than Sinister and his Marauders. He also wasn’t bothered by the fact that Lady Deathstrike and Riptide were now part of the team. Well, Deathstrike had been allies with the X-Men before, but Riptide was different.

 After his fight with Sabretooth, Riptide stayed in the infirmary for about a week. Apparently his powers allowed him to heal wounds once they were small or just not as deep as they had been before. Really, he wouldn’t be shooting powerful throwing stars out of his body if he _knew_ that his skin wouldn’t heal.

 Now the X-Men were waiting for him. A few days before he was released, Wolverine had invited him to train in the Danger Room with the others as a team. Riptide agreed, but it sounded like he either wasn’t listening, or he just didn’t care. But he did say yes, so he was supposed to be here.

 In fact, Colossus glanced at his watch, not too thrilled about waiting for Riptide for almost an hour and a half (but then again, Colossus decided to come a little earlier). Deathstrike wasn’t too happy about waiting, either. Now, she was all fixed up from her attack and ready to put her powers to some new tests.

 Tempest, also known to the others as Angel Salvadore, was obviously in a daze because she had been staring at the wall with her mouth open for a while. Nightcrawler started to feel himself fall into a daydream with her, until Beast finally broke the long silence. “I don’t think Riptide is used to running on schedules.”

 “Do Marauders even practice?” Wolverine joked. Angel was the only one who really laughed at that, and she still wasn’t sure who the Marauders were.

 Nightcrawler felt someone’s presence behind him. Storm leaned in close towards his ear and whispered. “I need to tell you something.”

 He smiled and turned to face his fiancé. Nightcrawler had proposed to her in the Danger Room after he had beaten her in combat. “What is it?” he whispered, placing his hands on her sides.

 She did the same, and spoke to him in the quietest voice possible. “Logan doesn’t want to…stick around anymore.”

 Nightcrawler looked puzzled. “You mean he does not want to stay with the X-Men?”

 She nodded.

 “Why must you whisper about it?”

 “Because I’m the only person he’s told. But you’re his best friend, and I thought—”

 “When did he tell you this?”

 “While you were unconscious from your rib injury.”

 He nodded and moved his tail up towards her head. He began to stroke it gently. “I still do not see the problem.”

 She hesitated. “He wants—Deathstrike…to take over as leader.”

 They stared at each other. Storm’s face was full of fear, but Nightcrawler’s was still calm. “Why is that a problem, Ororo? I like Yuriko. She’s proven to be—”

 “Kurt, we’ve been so focused with finding Angel and healing Riptide that we never really took the time to ask Deathstrike why she’s hear. I still don’t trust her…and I don’t even know _how_ I’m supposed to trust Riptide.”

 He gave her a hug and stroked her back with his hand. “Well, Logan knows what he wants. And I—”

 Colossus had lost his patience and walked towards the door. Storm broke free of Nightcrawler and stopped the Russian from leaving. “I’ll do it,” she told him. The last thing she wanted was Colossus and Riptide to start killing each other again.

 

 

 

Storm knocked on the door. She didn’t like barging in without checking first. When there was no answer, she turned the knob and entered. The room was empty, all except for a closet, a window, and a (occupied) bed. Riptide seemed almost completely knocked out, his hair was ruffled and in his face, one arm dangled off the side of the bed. All the blankets had been kicked off, and one out of the two pillows was on the floor.

 First, Storm tried shaking him lightly. But that did almost nothing, so she shook him harder. “Wake up,” she whispered. “You said—” Before Storm could even blink, Riptide’s arm shot up. The shuriken in his hand pointed straight at her neck, only an inch away from actually stabbing her. Storm just stood there with a shocked expression on her face.

 Finally, Riptide’s arm slowly lowered back down to his side. “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he murmured.

 Storm’s eyes where still wide, but she spoke in her usual serious tone. “We want you down in the Danger Room. For training.”

 He groaned and sat up. “Is that the hologram room?” He asked while pushing his messy hair back.

 “Yes. It’s the hologram room. You are well enough to use your powers once again. And you told us you would come this morning.”

 “I did? I don’t like keeping promises.”

 She crossed her arms. “Really? You seemed to be doing a good job at doing it when you were on Sinister’s side.”

 He laughed at that. “Give me some time, an’ you’ll learn to love me.”

 She rolled her eyes. She knew he was crazy, but she didn’t know how much crazier he could get before making her feel even _more_ uneasy. As soon as he stood up, something slipped out. “You aren’t going down in _that_.”

 “In what?”

 “That suit.”

 His purple leotard was now torn and covered in bloodstains. There was even a giant hole in the stomach area that revealed his skin. It was still kind of red, but that only meant it was healing, not infected. But still, he didn’t like the sound of that. “Y’know, X-Girl, I didn’t really _plan_ on bringing anything here with me, seeing as how you knocked me out and forced me—”

 Storm grabbed his arm and pulled him out the door.

 

 

 

Everyone had somehow expected to see an angry Storm once she had arrived back in the Danger Room. And, of course, they were right. Her pupils started to disappear as she spoke. “ _He_ is impossible to communicate with. _He_ won’t finish a conversation without arguing with you. And most of all, _he_ is the rudest mutant I have ever met.”

 “I dunno,” Deathstrike said, looking at her long claws. “He doesn’t seem like the rudest person in he world. I’m sure I’ve seen worse. What where you—”

 Riptide walked in wearing a black shirt, blue jeans, and a leather jacket. On his belt, as well as the left side of the jacket, there was a big X symbol. He crossed his arms and tried to avoid eye contact with the others. “Is that my jacket?” It was Wolverine’s question. Riptide just shrugged.

 “Worry about your clothes later, Logan,” Beast told him. “So what’s our simulation looking like today?”

 “Well,” Wolverine starts, “I’m gonna divide us into teams. We’ll be tryin’ to rescue a mutant hostage from the Purifiers. Y’all remember them, right—?”

 “Yes,” everyone, even Angel, said in unison.

 “Sorry. Just makin’ sure. Anyways, one team will distract them for the other team, while they infiltrate the base and—”

 Wolverine’s explanation was interrupted by loud beatboxing-like noises. Everyone turned and stared awkwardly at Riptide, but he didn’t care. He just kept making weird noises with his mouth.

 Finally, he stopped and smirked at the others. Colossus spoke first. “Are you done?”

 “Look, no offense,” Riptide started, “but I’m more of the ‘come on, let’s start this damn program’ types. So…come on, let’s start this damn program.”

 “You need to be ready for what comes in the future. The X-Men use strategies—”

 “Okay, that’s fair. But shouldn’t you guys be ready by now? You’ve done this, like, a million times.”

 “You cannot expect every battle to be the same,” Nightcrawler says. “Otherwise, you would not need to train. You may not even need help from anyone. We are working in teams, and you can’t do everything at once.”

 “All right. Then I’m on the rescue team.”

 “That’s fine,” Colossus tells him, “as long as you take this seriously.”

 “All right then,” Wolverine says before Riptide can talk back. “Riptide, Tempest, Nightcrawler, and Beat will get the hostage. Everyone else will kick some ass and meet up in the base. If we don’t make it there in time, then we’ll see you on the jet.” He tells the Danger Room to begin.

 The room seems to grow bigger and darker. Men in purple and white robes immediately attack. Some shout at others, telling them to keep the mutants away from the base. The base, it seemed, was a church. A little cliché for the Purifiers. “I will teleport us inside as soon as we get close enough,” Nightcrawler tells his team.

 Tempest takes a couple Purifiers down with some ice and fire balls. “You sayin’ that _now_ isn’t a good time, Kurt?”

 “I mean, I could get us out of the crowd…. Ja, okay.” He grabs Beast, Tempest, and Riptide. They disappear, reappear away from the crowd, disappear again, and then appear inside of the church.

 It is empty and new looking. The windows are stained in red, blue, and green. Bibles are neatly placed on the benches. A giant cross is displayed on the stage. “I’m not seeing a door around here,” Beast tells them. “Just a sanctuary.”

 “Maybe there’s a secret passage in the floor,” Tempest suggests.

 Riptide picks up a book from a shelf by a window. “You guys really go outta your way to make this look real.”

 “Weird to think that it’s _not_ real, right?” Beast asks. Then he notices the air vent by one of the seats on the right. “That air vent may be big enough to fit us. Maybe we’ll find a way to a secret room without making too much noise trying to find it.”

 Tempest opens the big square gate, and the four climb in. As they ease their way through the vent, Riptide tells Nightcrawler that he did a great job _not_ teleporting them to where the hostage was.

 “I can’t teleport without seeing where I am going. I could kill us if it goes wrong.”

 “Who made up that stupid rule?”

 Tempest shushes them as they approach another gate. They were indeed above another room. Beast starts to whisper. “All right. Nightcrawler, you can teleport us down from _this_ height, right?”

 “Yes I can.”

 “Okay. You can go down yourself and take care of any Purifiers that are down there. We’ll try to find our way to a room somewhere—”

 As Beast talked, Riptide lay on his back, raised his foot, and slammed it down as hard as he could onto the gate a couple of times. Around the third time, the gate fell to the floor, making a _CLANG_ noise that echoed through the room. Tempest held her hands over her mouth. “Don’t do that,” Beast tells him. “Some Purifiers might have heard that.”

 “Good,” Riptide says. “I haven’t had anyone kill yet.”

 They jump down. They were in a hallway with rooms on the side of the walls. The lights were on in some of the rooms, but by the looks of it, no one was in them. It looked a little like an office building after hours.

 One door was closed. As soon as Nightcrawler opened it, he leaned in and almost fell. It wasn’t a room; it was a stairway leading downstairs. “Hmm,” he starts, “a closed door that leads to a basement. Think our hostage is down there?”

 “Judging by what we’ve seen in the past,” Beast begins, “most likely.”

 “Okay then,” Riptide says. “Let’s grab this bitch and get outta here.”

 “You don’t know if it’s a girl or not,” Tempest tells him.

 “I think it is.”

 As they make their way down the stair, not only did the stairs creak louder, but also something terrible hits their noses. “Anyone else smell a dead body?” Riptide asks. The other three nod. The farther down they went, the more the smell increased.

 “Just a warning,” Beast starts, “I think there may be bodies down here.”

 It was almost pitch black. Nightcrawler was the first to alert them that they had reached the bottom. He gasped. “I think…there are bodies in the floor,” he whispered.

 A thin string hits Tempest in the face. “I think this is the light switch.”

 When she pulls it, the room glows bright. And it is now clear. Mutant bodies are everywhere. They hung from the ceiling by their arms, their parts were sticking out from the floorboards, some were strapped to tables and some were just lying on the ground. The four live mutants in the room all stared at the sight. Nightcrawler even spotted one nailed to the wall. He makes a move to stand on the first step, because he happened to be standing on a floorboard that made a squishing noise if you stepped on it.

 “Well,” Riptide finally says, “I think the Purifiers should stop decorating this place and just call someone.”

 “That’s not—” Nightcrawler starts. But he is interrupted by a woman’s scream. Without a word, they all run through the basement. More bodies hang from the ceiling, either staring at them or not. Riptide curses loudly after he accidentally runs into one.

 After running through a few narrow hallways full of dirty water and blood, they find themselves in a small room. Someone was sobbing loudly on the ground, her hands and legs tied up. It was a girl, wearing only a short top and boxers. Tempest ran up to her first. “Are you okay?” she asks the girl.

 “Yes. Thank you.” She sat up and looked at the others. Riptide’s eyes grew wide with confusion. He looked from Nightcrawler to Beast, and then back at the girl. It was Vertigo.

 “STOP!” He yells at the Danger Room. “PAUSE THE SIMULATION, OR WHATEVER! STOP!”

 "Pause!” Nightcrawler does it for him. And just like that, the room becomes smaller and lighter once again. The other four mutants were all in different fighting positions. Except for Storm. She was lying on the ground, and immediately sat up once she realized she was not actually wounded.

 They all ran towards the other four. “What happened?” Storm asked.

 Riptide looked down, but saw no Vertigo. Then he looked at Wolverine. “Why was Vertigo the hostage?” He asked furiously.

 “Oh yeah,” Wolverine muttered. “Look, I needed everyone, including you, focused on this mission. You may see her like that again real soon.”

 “Vertigo is intelligent and she can get herself out of these types of situations.”

 “Calm down,” Deathstrike says, annoyed. “It’s only a simulation.”

 “Why aren’t we looking for her? How come we’re just wasting time in this place?”

 “You need to be prepared. In case something were to go wrong on our search,” Storm tells him.

 There is a silence in the room for a few seconds. Then, Wolverine breaks it. “I think we’re done here.” As he starts to walk away, he calls for Riptide. “I want to show you something.”

 Riptide follows him out of the Danger Room. As soon as they’re both gone, Deathstrike inches her way next to Storm. “I may have misjudged him,” she tells her. “He _does_ seem hard to talk to.”


	2. A Date, A Kiss, And Tricks

Yuriko sat at the kitchen table, playing with her nails. She was wearing short sleeves, and looking at her skin made it just too tempting to cut herself and watch the wounds heal. The first few cuts hurt, but it was easy to get used to the rest. The skin grew back, but the blood remained fresh on her claws.

 “That’s not one of the smartest thing to do.”

 Yuriko looked up, surprised that she hadn’t heard Logan walk in. She rested her arms on the table as Logan sat down across from her. “I’m fine, Logan. Unlike you, I have a healing factor.”

 “You were just torn apart, put back together, and you still want to cut yourself open?”

 “Surprised?”

 Logan snorted. He expected Yuriko to get up and leave, but instead, she drummed her fingers against the table and stared at Logan. Without blinking. There was an awkward silence during that, which finally snapped Yuriko out of it. “Where did you take Riptide?” she asked.

 “To the training grounds outside.” But Yuriko just tilted her head to the side. Logan spoke again. “It’s like the Danger Room, only outdoors. Gives you more space, especially when you’re power involves flying stars and spikes.”

 She nodded. “I may want to try that out myself.”

 Logan stood up and crossed his arms. “I had a reason coming in here to talk to you, you know—”

 “You wanted to apologize again.” She smirked.

 He shrugged. “If I had been there, you wouldn’t have been mauled.”

 “But if you were there, it could have been you. And the X-men would lose you again.” She stood up and rested her hand on his shoulder. “Can’t have that, right?”

 He couldn’t tell whether or not she was joking. A part of Logan still didn’t want her on the team, but it was that argument between the two of them about trust that almost killed Yuriko. Logan didn’t want to bring up his thoughts in front of her again, and he wanted to make sure that she _really_ was serious. “Well, I still feel like you haven’t been properly welcomed here.”

 “You gonna take me on a tour? Like Nightcrawler did with Riptide?”

 “No. I’m actually inviting you out to drink.”

 She crossed her arms. “Really? And the occasion is—”

 “Getting to know you better.” He lied.

 

 Flashback

 

Kurt was in his room, sitting on his perfectly made bed. He played around with a small black box, hoping that the ring inside of it remained in its place. His head was down and his eyes were closed. Praying for the safety of his team was hard when he knew that one of them was dead and walking.

 He lay down on his back, still holding the box with a strong grip. As his eyes opened, he spoke his thoughts out loud. “I’m doing this because I know what you want, Ororo. You want to be happy and married. And because of last night, it was easy to figure this all out. We know so much about each other, and you have done so much for me. I want this too, but I’m scared that I’m doing it for the wrong reason.”

 He placed the box on his nightstand and opened his door, prepared to meet Storm in the Danger Room. “No one wants to live alone,” he concluded before leaving.

 

End of Flashback

 

 When Kurt opened the door to his room, his BAMFS all poked their heads up and waited for him to deliver his message. “All right,” the German blue mutant told his little look-a-like companions. “It is Storm’s room.”

 They all cheered at the news. After a few days of debating, Kurt and Ororo finally decided that Kurt would move into her room. Peter once asked them why it was such a big deal. And even they didn’t know the answer. It was just weird for the couple to live under the same roof but sleep in separate rooms.

 Kurt gathered some of his things and put them in boxes. He kept teleporting in and out of Storm’s room, until he was finished setting them down. That was when he noticed that she was putting on a new shirt. Storm turned around, wearing only a bra and pants, just in time to see Kurt’s BAMFS teleport onto her bed. She smiled. “Are your little companions going to stay with us?”

 “Is that okay?” Kurt asked.

 “Yes, of course. Why wouldn’t it be?” With that, she and Kurt kissed on the lips, causing the BAMFS to sigh.

 Kurt wasn’t sure what it was that made him do it, but as he rested his hands on her sides (like he always did), he fell to the ground, taking Storm down with him. The two started making out, Kurt’s tail squeezed Storm tightly as they moved around on the ground. The BAMFS covered their eyes.

  _This must be pleasing to her,_ Kurt thought. But she pulled away as soon as his thoughts turned back to her lips.

 “Kurt, we should save this,” she told him.

 “Save it for when?” They faced each other on the ground.

 “For when we’re married.” Suddenly, she bolted up and held her head. “Goddess! We haven’t planned this out yet!”

 “Kurt sat up. “Calm down. We will make plans.”

 She ignored him. “We don’t know when it’s going to be, where it’s going to be, who we’re going to invite—”

 “Relax.” He placed his hand on her back. “It won’t be long before the ideas come to us. We have plenty of time.” She turned towards him as he continued. “I know that we are defiantly inviting family and close friends.”

 “Did you tell Margali?”

 Kurt’s eyes went blank. The last time he had seen his foster-mother, she had turned crazy, and Amanda was lost. Margali was kind of against his relationship with Amanda, which affected their relationship. Would she be happy that he had found a new soul mate that _isn’t_ his ‘technical’ sister? “Well, no. I think I’ll hold that off for a while—”

 “Kurt—” she began.

 “I’ll do it. But I’d rather tell her face-to-face, you know? It’s been a rough ride since…well, you were there.”

 She stroked his hand. “Yes. We’ll find a way to remember her, Kurt. A way that won’t bring us tears every time it’s brought up. A statue, or a picture—”

 “Danke.” He stood up and stretched. Storm smiled as the BAMFS teleported into her lap and cuddled with each other.

 

 If there was one thing that any Marauder or _retired_ Marauder hated the most, it was missing a target. And Riptide had not even hit one from the moment he started using the training grounds. Beast noticed this from a distance. Hank McCoy was originally planning to just take a walk through the garden, but a series of curse words had stopped him.

 He quickly walked over to where the Marauder was trying to hit his target. The guns shot tiny rays of red beams, similar to Cyclops’ mutant powers. Riptide’s stars were powerful enough to tear through the guns like paper, but it seemed that the beams were faster. They shot the stars and disintegrated them until they were just dust in the air. These beams were probably more powerful than Cyclops’ power.

 As soon as Riptide saw Beast he jumped. The star in his hand that was ready to be thrown dropped to the ground. “I forgot that you could be so startling.” He bent down and picked it back up.

 Beast didn’t care about that compliment. “This equipment is trickier to use. The Danger Room doesn’t need you to follow steps, but this wants you to follow a pattern.”

 “And what the hell does that mean?”

 “Throw a star.”

 Riptide rolled his eyes and turned around. He threw the shuriken to his left and the gun turned to it’s right and destroyed it. “Of course,” Riptide murmured.

 “Do it again.”

 Riptide did so once more. The shuriken was slightly angled this time, but the gun still turned to the right and shot it.

 “I see what you’re doing. You’re so focused on that one gun that you won’t stop until it’s destroyed. You should shoot at another gun, and then shoot at this one while it’s—”

 “I get it,” Riptide interrupted. Suddenly, strong winds appeared and dozens of shurikens emerged from his tornado. They all shot for different guns, each one blasting the stars faster that Riptide could throw them. This angered Riptide, so he spun faster. Finally, Beast told him to stop because one gun was smoking.

 ¿Qué coño!” He kept cursing. The winds died down, and Riptide felt defeated. This was pathetic. If this were Marauder training, Sinister would have probably made the others pounce on him until he was dead. “Is this how you suck the intelligence out of your students? Like they need something so complicated to bitch about other than their new mutations.”

 Beast shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat. He didn’t want to argue with Riptide, plus he would be lying if he told the others that he wasn’t just a little scared of him. “I’ve noticed that you work yourself too hard. You need to relax more. Be patient when you are training. Concentrate on the objective and focus less on how many shurikens you throw.”

 Riptide shook his head. “The only way I can concentrate is by picturing the reward I’m promised.” He turned his head towards Beast, the furry man’s eyes started glowing as the sun sank lower. “What am I getting out of all of this?”

 “You’re going to find you’re lost Marauder friends. That should be enough.”


	3. A Smoke For The Moon

_I’m 20 years old and I’m still a cup size A._ Angel put on her mascara as she looked in the mirror and judged her own body. _Pathetic girl._ She dug through her purse and pulled out a few containers of eye shadow. She usually put on the color black, but she wanted to see herself with a different look.

 “Gotta date?”

 She let out a squeal as she noticed Riptide standing in the bathroom doorway. He was still wearing his outfit from Danger Room practice, including Logan’s jacket. “Could you please not scare me, like, again? You know it’s rude to sneak up on a girl like that while she has a brush close to her eye?”

 “Apologies.” But that didn’t seem to stop him because he walked right in and stood next to her, the exact opposite of what Angel wanted. “You should wear the silver. It’ll match the full moon tonight.”

  _I’ll decide on which color I want to wear,_ she wanted to say, but it came out as, “There’s a full moon tonight?”

 “Yes. I always keep track. I was born on a full moon, y’know.”

 “That’s cool. I like new moons a little better, though. They’re more mysterious.” _Why are you talking so sweetly?_

 “Full moons show off fogs and mists. Every second is like you’re slowly turning into something that’s been building up inside of you for years. You feel like you’re being stalked, and you just wanna die so that you don’t have to feel that way.”

 Angel felt goose bumps emerge on her arms. “Well, that’s…not what I think when I see a full moon.” Suddenly, her ‘don’t look into his eyes’ rule changed, as she met his dead eyes once again. This time, she couldn’t look away.

 “Close your eyes.” It was a demand.

 She took a step back. “Why?”

 “I’m gonna do your makeup.” He smiled.

 “What? You? No, I—”

 “Trust me. I’ll be careful.”

  _Don’t do it. He’s planning something._ She closed her eyes tightly, hoping that whatever it was he was doing was quick. “Not so tight, girly,” she heard him say. She relaxed her eyelids, but not her thoughts. Then she felt her makeup brush press softly on her left eyelid. Her shoulders relaxed a little, as well as _a few_ of her thoughts. “Do you do this often? To girls?” She asked him.

 “No. I observe and I learn.”

 Her right eyelid flickered as the brush painted it with the powder. And finally, Riptide told her to open her eyes. She turned towards the mirror and opened them. She was so used to seeing the darkness of black around her eyes, but now it was glowing grey. And when she got closer to the light, she could see little sparkles mixed in with the powder. She turned towards Riptide. “Bonita,” he said simply. “Thank you,” she responded.

 "Now that you have your makeup on, d’ya wanna tell me about the occasion?”

 “Well, there is no occasion. I just wanted to put some on. Try a new look.” She chuckled.

 “Well, then do you wanna come with me?”

 “Where are you going?” She sounded a little worried.

 “Drinking.” He shrugged.

 “Are you even aloud to leave the school? Or intoxicate yourself with alcohol?”

 He leaned back against the wall. “I’ve been stuck here for two weeks being constantly watched by people who hate me. So if this option is free for this one night, I don’t think I could give less of a shit.”

 Angel laughed a little at the way he said that. But then she turned serious. “So…you are asking me out?” He didn’t respond. He just stared at her like she was an amazing artifact. Angel sighed. “I think I’ll just stay here. I feel a little feverish, and I don’t think beer is going to help me.”

 “All right.” With that, he walked out of the bathroom. That went better than she had originally thought. Angel then turned back to look at her eye shadow again. And honestly, silver _was_ a really pretty color.

 

 As Kurt sat in his favorite tree, watching the sun set slowly, something happened that had not occurred in quite some time.

  _Hello, Nightcrawler._

Instead of freaking out like he did the first time, Kurt smiled and greeted the voice. “Hello, Professor. It’s been a while.”

  _Yes. How are you feeling?_

“Great, actually. I have a lot of things on my mind, and so does Storm.”

  _Your wedding will bring you both joy. Although, I’m sensing something inside of you that you are…regretting?_

“What is there to regret, Professor? I love Storm.” He felt his back get sweaty and his tail shake.

  _Kurt, you should—_

“I should what? Are you saying that I _can’t_ marry Storm? Is something going to go wrong? Professor, this does not sound like—” Professor Xavier didn’t respond after Kurt had paused. _Why can’t he just be alive and well?_ Kurt thought. All Kurt really wanted to do at the moment was have a conversation with Xavier without him disappearing.

The entire car ride for Logan and Yuriko was as quiet as a graveyard. But as soon as they pulled up into the parking lot outside of the large bar that evening, and saw crowds of people who looked happy and just _a little_ bit crazy, they both felt the need for talk. “Is it always this crowded?” Yuriko asked as she stepped out of the car.

 “I don’t know,” Logan responded. “I’ve never been here.”

 “So you _don’t_ know if guys’ll try an’ take me home?”

 “Very funny. But stick with me just in case.”

 They walked into the bar, greeted by loud music and people laughing and playing games. “I can handle myself, Logan.” Yuriko brushed her long hair back. “You, on the other hand, don’t have your healing factor. You’ll be drunk in ten minutes. I think _you_ should be the one who sticks by _me_.”

 Before Logan could respond, something caught Yuriko’s eyes and she turned around. “Hey,” she began, “isn’t that—?” Logan whirled around and saw a familiar-looking looking motorcycle. _His_ motorcycle. And the man known as Riptide climbed off of it and shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked towards them. And, of course, Logan was mad. “What d’ya like about my stuff that makes you want to take it from me without askin’?” Logan asked him.

 “It’s a nice bike. I had one like it as a teenager.” Riptide turned to face Yuriko and gave her a toothy smile. “Is this guy bothering you, pretty lady?”

 Logan was surprised to hear her chuckle. “Let’s hope he won’t. Or else he’d have to deal with a pissed-off lady.” She elbowed Logan twice in the ribs.

 Logan grunted. “Changed my mind, Yuriko. Go in without me.”

 Yuriko walked inside without another word.

 “Aw geez. Am I in trouble?” Riptide asked sarcastically.

 “Actually,” Logan began as Riptide lounged back against the brick building, “I want to know how you managed to hear about me an’ Yuriko going out tonight.”

 “I didn’t know. I just felt like coming hear and checking the place out.”

 Logan was tempted to show off his claws by holding them up to Riptide’s throat. “Don’t lie t’me, Janos. I can smell your lies from hear, so you might wanna tell the truth.”

 “Well, your sense of smell is out of date. Aren’t you, like, a thousand years old now?”

 Before Logan could react to that, Riptide reached into his jean pockets and took out both a lighter and a cigarette. “And where did you get that?” Logan asked as Riptide lit his cigarette.

 “Yuriko has a lot of them in her drawer,” Riptide said with the cigarette in his mouth.

 Logan looked at him with disbelief. He looked through Yuriko’s drawers and stole something that belonged to her without her knowing? That _had_ to have happened after they had left. And that means— “And that’s my lighter, I’m guessing?”

 Riptide threw the lighter to Logan, who caught it with both of his hands and cupped it out of view. “I wasn’t planning on giving it back to you now, but since you’re here, that seems most appropriate.”

 “Do you steel things from everybody that you know?”

 “Believe me when I say, the only thing that I’m _wanted_ for is stealing all the _glory_.”

 Logan stood there for a minute, watching Riptide smoke. He rested his hands on his sides and then unzipped his jacket. “So, you’re not gonna come in?”

 “Maybe later. I’m waiting for the moon.”

 “What does that mean?”

 “It’s a full moon tonight. I’ve been keeping track since I was six. I do it because it’s the one prediction where I’ll always be right.”

 Logan nodded. “You celebrate the full moon or something by smoking?”

 Riptide snorted. “Is that a joke?”

 “You know they give you cancer, right?”

 “That never stopped you.”

 “I had a healing factor. You had a cloning chamber.”

 Riptide threw the cigarette on the ground and stomped on it angrily. “I smoke one every seven months to remind me that I had six siblings. One of my brothers died a long time ago, so I smoke one on the fifth month. I used to smoke every six months since _my own_ death. But now my sister is dead, and the sixth month was last month.”

 Logan didn’t know how to respond to that. He just learned that Riptide has a lot of dedication towards his family. This was something different coming from a guy like him.

  _You should leave now._ Riptide heard it again. The voice in his head was telling him to leave. And this time, he _wanted_ to listen to it. “I’ll go back now.” He walked back towards the bike. Logan wanted to tell him to be careful with it, but was there really a point? “Good talk,” Riptide called as he drove away. _An interesting one,_ Logan thought.

 

 By the time Riptide got back to the school, it was already dark. He parked the bike in the garage and thought of how Wolverine and Deathstrike were probably drunk and making love without a care or knowledge. That made him smile at his dirty mind.

 As he walked out of the garage, he saw the full moon. Usually, he would look at it and think of his hair, sharing the same color and all. But this time, he expected the moon to be an eyelid that would lift up and reveal one of Angel’s beautiful eyes. He thought about that over and over again as he walked back towards the outdoor training grounds. He stopped beside the tree next to one of the practice guns and sighed. He closed his eyes and tried to think of a way to beat this thing.

 He held a shuriken tightly in his hand. _You idiot,_ the voice said back. _Loosen that up. This ain’t Mr. Sinister’s training grounds._ Riptide wanted to talk back to himself, but then he remembered what Beast had told him earlier. He wouldn’t get very far if he just made all the mistakes he had made originally. “Relax,” he whispered to himself. He threw his shuriken, and the gun by the tree immediately fired. But Riptide didn’t stop to throw the next star back at it.

 

 Kurt rolled over on his back, trying to get comfortable in Storm’s bed and wondering why it was so hard all of a sudden. But as he opened his eyes, he found himself staring at green leaves that covered most of the night sky out of view. His tail had a grip on the branch that he had fallen asleep on, but he loosened it once he heard the sound of Cyclops’ powers in the distance. This frightened him. He was about to teleport down, but then he looked down and noticed that the training grounds had been activated. He peered down and saw Riptide hitting some of the guns with his stars, missing a few targets only to take down others.

 For a second, Kurt wondered how long it had been since Riptide started and if he knew he was there. But Kurt couldn’t stop watching Riptide’s smooth and graceful movement as he treated the course like he had been training on it all his life. To Kurt, this was impressive because never before had he seen such patience in a newcomer. He jumped down, not wanting to disturb Riptide by teleporting, and waited until it seemed like Riptide was finished before he spoke.

 Riptide finally stopped with his back turned to Kurt, probably waiting for the next level to start. Kurt walked over to him and reached out his hand. “You are really good at—”

 Riptide spun around, his arm extended and his face painted with a smile and wide eyes. He looked like he was eager to kill again. But then, his smile faded. His eyes remained wide, but his expression turned to surprised. It seemed that the star in his hand was waiting for the next set of guns, but instead, it hit Kurt directly in the shoulder.    

 


End file.
